Seoul, Oct 18 (IANS) Officials and business executives of South Korea and China gathered in Seoul on Friday to discuss ways of promoting bilateral economic exchanges, Seoul's finance ministry said.

The South Korea-China economic cooperation and exchange meeting was the second of its kind after being launched last year jointly by South Korea's finance ministry and China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Yonhap news agency reported.

Friday's event brought together some 200 officials from their respective governments, economic institutions and companies, including POSCO Holdings Inc., SK Corp. and China's Alibaba Group, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The participants shared their investment circumstances, explored business opportunities and exchanged opinions on a wide range of economic issues, including cooperation on supply chains.

"Now is time for South Korea and China to upgrade cooperative relations in line with the fast-changing global environment," First Vice Finance Minister Kim Beom-seok said during the meeting.

Wu Hao, the NDRC's secretary general, said the exchange meeting would serve as a chance for the two nations to seek ways to cooperate for a new future, according to the ministry.

Bilateral trade between South Korea and China came to $267.68 billion, up from a mere $6.38 billion in 1992, government data showed.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the ministry and the NDRC held a consultative meeting on supply chains, where the two sides agreed to deepen supply chain ties with a longer-term perspective through joint studies among their state-run agencies, the ministry said.

--IANS

int/sha